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Young Jesus and Shroud of Turin

A young Jesus?

To mark the rare public display of the Shroud of Turin, for the first time in five years from April 19-June 24, 2015, Italian police used the Shroud to create an image of a 'young Jesus' through computer forensics, with age progression software in reverse.

The new image of Jesus will probably create as much controversy as the The Shroud of Turin itself. The new display of the Shroud has created keen interest, but it also renews the debate about it's authenticity as the burial cloth of Jesus Christ.

Credit: Rome Police

Negative image

In 1898, Secondo Pia was allowed to photograph the Shroud. The image he saw in his darkroom startled the world: The Shroud, it turns out, is like a photo negative.

The Italian police created the 'age regression' image using a negative facial image of the Shroud such as this one for an Italian documentary.

Credit: 1978 STERA, Inc

12 year-old Jesus?

To create the 'age regression' image of a '12-year-old Jesus' the span between the eyebrows, nose and shape of jaw was kept in proportion. Eye color, long hair and complexion were all subjective.

Credit: Rome Police

Shroud of Turin

The faithful look at the Holy Shroud in the Cathedral of Turin during the opening day of the exposition on April 19, 2015.

Devotees believe the shroud, which is imprinted with the image of a man who appears to have been crucified, to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. Sceptics are just as adamant that it is nothing more than a Medieval forgery which scientists have carbon-dated to around 1300 years after Christ supposedly died on the cross.

Credit: Giorgio Perottino/Reuters

Shroud of Turin

Pilgrims watch a video introducing the visit of the Shroud of Turin at the duomo in Turin, April 19, 2015.

The Holy Shroud exposition will run until June 24.

Credit: Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty Images

Shroud of Turin

The faithful look at the Holy Shroud in the Cathedral of Turin during the opening day of the exposition, April 19, 2015.

Credit: Giorgio Perottino/Reuters

Shroud of Turin

Pilgrims queue outside the duomo to see the Shroud on April 19, 2015 in Turin.

More than a million people reserved a free ticket to see the Shroud in the city of Turin from April 19 to June 24, 2015.

Credit: Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty Images

Shroud of Turin

Carabinieri's paramilitary police stand next to the Holy Shroud during a media preview of the Exposition of the Holy Shroud in the Cathedral of Turin, April 18, 2015.

Credit: Giorgio Perottino/Reuters

"The Sign"

In "The Sign" (Dutton Books), art historian Thomas de Wesselow argues that, despite a 1988 carbon dating test which resulted in the Shroud being declared a medieval fake dating from between 1260 and 1390, the burial cloth is real, because the signs of the wounds represented predate Middle Age artistic representations of the style of Roman crucifixions.

Detail of the Holy Shroud

A detail of the Holy Shroud - the object of both bafflement and veneration believed by many to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ - is displayed inside the cathedral in Turin, Italy, April 10, 2010.

Credit: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images

Closeup view of the Shroud

An closeup view of the Shroud.

In 1978, a team of American scientists and scholars calling themselves the Shroud of Turin Research Project (or STURP) was given 120 hours to subject the Shroud to a "CS"-like forensic study. Working 24 hours a day, they set out to discover how the image was made, and if it was a fake. They couldn't. The report concluded that how the image was made remains a mystery.

Credit: Inc

Holy Shroud

A detail of the Holy Shroud is displayed inside the cathedral in Turin, April 10, 2010.

Since 1933, the Shroud has been displayed to the public five times. From April 19 to June 24, 2015 it's again available to the public to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of St. John Bosco.

Credit: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images

Pray Codex medieval manuscript

An image from the Pray Codex medieval manuscript illustrating the burial of Jesus, which shows striking similarities to the Shroud of Turin.

Credit: Dutton Books

Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI prays in front of the Shroud in the Turin Cathedral on May 2, 2010. The 83-year-old pontiff, in his one-day visit to Turin, celebrated an open-air mass in Piazza San Carlo.

"It will be a propitious occasion to contemplate this mysterious visage that speaks silently to the heart of men, inviting them to recognise the face of God," Benedict said in 2008 as he announced the planned new exposition of the mysterious cloth.

Credit: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP/Getty Images

"Deposition of the Holy Sudarium"

A painting by Giovanni Battista della Rovere, "Deposition of the Holy Sudarium," shows the body of Christ being wrapped for burial; above is a representation of the Shroud.

Credit: (c)1978 STERA, Inc

Full view of Shroud of Turin

Full view of the Shroud of Turin.

Credit: Stera/Dutton Books

Negative image

A negative image of the Shroud.

Credit: 1978 STERA, Inc

Solemn Exposition

People line up to enter the Solemn Exposition of the Holy Shroud on April 10, 2010 in Turin, Italy.

Credit: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images

First day of public display

Visitors look at the Shroud of Turin on the first day of its public display in ten years in the cathedral in Turin, April 10, 2010.

Credit: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP/Getty Images

Holy Shroud souvenirs

A visitor shows images of the Shroud of Turin on sale at the official bookshop of Turin's cathedral, April 10, 2010.

Credit: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP/Getty Images

Mass celebrated by Cardinal Poletto

Bishops pray in front of the Shroud of Turin at the end of a mass celebrated by Turin Cardinal Severino Poletto in the cathedral in Turin, April 10, 2010

Credit: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP/Getty Images

Images of the Holy Shroud

Images of the Holy Shroud are displayed April 10, 2010 in the cathedral in Turin, Italy.

Credit: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images

Reproduction of the Holy Shroud

A volunteer explains to pilgrims the mystery of the Shroud, in front a Shroud reproduction and a statue of Christ in the San Lorenzo church in central Turin, May 1, 2010.

Credit: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP/Getty Images

Pople John Paul II

Pope John Paul II prays with Cardinal Bishop Angelo Sodano (right) at the Turin Saint-John the Baptist cathedral before the controversial Turin Shroud May 24, 1998.

The Pope said, "The Shroud is an image of God's love as well as of human sin ... The imprint left by the tortured body of the Crucified One, which attests to the tremendous human capacity for causing pain and death to one's fellow man, stands as an icon of the suffering of the innocent in every age."

Credit: Gerard Julien/AFP/Getty Images

Threatened by fire

An image taken from television shows firemen using axes to smash layers of protective glass shielding the casket which contains the sacred Shroud of Turin during the early hours of April 12, 1997, following a blaze which devastated the 17th century chapel in the city's cathedral.

The Shroud had been removed from the chapel while restoration work was in progress and placed temporarily behind the central altar in the St. John the Baptist Cathedral, the only Renaissance building in the north Italian city.